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By Hugh Malcolm McCormick 




IN REMEMBRANCE .S 

Bv Hugh M. McCormick .^// ^^ 

"Though awful tempests thunder overhead, 
I deem that God is not disquieted, 
The faith that trembles somewhat, yet is sure, 
Through storm and darkness of a way secure." 

— James Wliitconib Riley. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN — Father Abraham! Fifty-one years ago you left 
us, yet to-day, a Nation's eyes grow softened at your name. 

O great and good and faithful unto death ; O simple, deep and wise ; O 
martyred savior of a stricken Land — from what high throne do you behold your 
Country day by day! 

There fell a gloom upon the Sacred Hills, Heaven hid its face and Earth 
travailed beneath the Centurion's foot, while the Lord Christ hung upon the 
Cross — and, when you passed to God for your reward, there fell upon our Land 
from sea to sea a darkness, while your orphaned People sobbed. 

O cherished lingerers of the Gray and Blue, O fellow-countrymen of 
North and South, pause- — and in that deep-seamed face behold the woes of mil- 
lions of mankind, the burdens of a people nigh to death, the sufferings of a 
hundred battlefields, the countless tears of widows and of maids, and stricken 
Motherhood and Fatherhood and piteous, pitiless DUTY written large. 

Abraham Lincoln — Father Abraham, generous, merciful and just — our 
memories are still so fond and tender they can stir to anguish, and, at the quick 
pang, start the tears again. Ah, God, will nothing do but sufifering, is there 
no other road than that of grief, must sorrow haunt forever the footsteps of the 
Race — eternal brother of the sad ghost, loss? O grave and kind evangel of a 
liitter day — I do not come with fulsome praise, nor to recall the blood-bathed 
time in which you lived, nor yet compare the present with the past ; I come with 
tear-dimmed eyes and fluttering pulse and choking breath to falter, "we remem- 
ber." Is my message plain, or do my trembling lips deny their office? That we 
remember, remember the war-racked days and care-filled nights when you with 
God's help saved "Our Country" from disunion. Patient, self-forgetful, uncom- 
plaining, honest "Abe" — we've not forgotten ! No other name your People honor 
is embalmed within our Nationheart in such a wealth of tenderness and love ; 
no other face of all the Great and Good of Earth we look upon witli such high 
reverence, homage and esteem. 

Large-hearted Lover of your Kind, let me speak ! Too seldom far is just 
praise given, too often far the slanderous tongues of envy and of hate shrivel 
and scar the Martyrs of Mankind ; therefore let me speak, I do hut voice my 
Fellows' minds, we will be eased and you assured if I speak on. 



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From wakening springtime cornfields and grass-edged village streets my 
Fellows come, from humming mill and murmuring wood, from tall, gaunt build- 
ings in the marts of trade, from mountain, valley, river, plain and sea — to do you 
homage, "Abe." You know us — great, kind-eyed Chieftain — and our hearts are 
filled with blessings and our souls are warm "Abe," warm with the memories of 
a Country saved, sweet with the knowledge of an honest Man, touched with a 
hint of that spirit which in a fuller sphere shall make misunderstandings fade 
forever in the sun of love. We see, behind the tender April sunshine, the pallid 
hosts of those who fought with you, and — mingling v/ith them freely — see we 
too the thin, worn ranks c f Grey. There is no North or South in Heaven and, 
here too. Pity remembers now both Sides were sorely scarred, and common sor- 
row makes us brothers all. From your high place among the Good and Great 
you've seen the South and North united since against a common foe, and new 
wounds, got together, wash away all save the sigh that Brothers ever warred. 

When, round our hearths as gathering shadows deepen, at eve we speak 
of you, and stories of your kindness and your faith are told again ; a thousand 
thousand new resolves to meet the future rightly and to merit well of it through 
courage, diligence and charity, assuredly will form — for the Human Soul is the 
Chief Thing, noble Lincoln, and for that you set a standard beyond all gauge of 
value while Mankind endures. 

We called you plain and common while you lived — we Common People 
whom you loved so well — and you ivere common, plain and unaffected, sincere 
and loyal and full of large compassion; firm in all duty, strong in time of trouble, 
and generous in victory and full of noble charity for friend and foe alike. O 
mind and soul and heart superlative, O wise and pure and great and good, 
O gentle, grieving, sweet and loving Father, Counsellor and Friend — words fail 
me and I bow impotent — little, pitiful and poor beside your towering worthiness, 
your wisdom and your strength. 

Kissed on brow and lips with a celestial glory, like Israel's Moses of old 
we see you stand — God-given, God-recalled — the princeliest Commoner, the ten- 
derest possession, the dearest name we own. Dear "Old Abe" — reach out your 
hands to us and bless us and tell us to be of cheer ; help us follow that path you 
found led straight to God — and, before His throne, we pray you intercede for 
our follies and mercifully plead for our shortcomings — for we are your People, 
and, sometimes, the lights are dim below. 

Yes, you belong to us and we to you, and upborne by the lesson of your 
life we turn away to meet our smaller duties, simpler tasks, remembering — "to 
each according to his strength, and by the light which each is given, let everyone 
perform his honest duty." 

Even so, Father Abraham. Amen. 

Copyricht. V. S. 1010 
r?v llTiiTh yi. McConiii.k 



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